Caskets have traditionally been in the form of a casket shell to which is pivoted a casket lid or cap. The cap may be the full length of the casket, or the cap may be in two halves, a head end cap and a foot end cap. When the cap is pivoted upwardly to an open position, the underneath or interior of the cap is visible to onlookers. Thus, it has been traditional to outfit the interior of casket caps with decorative materials to provide a visually pleasing appearance when the cap is pivoted to the open position, during, for example, viewing of the deceased in the casket.
Traditionally, caskets lids have been provided with a decorative dish assembly. A dish assembly generally takes the form of a rectangular paperboard cap panel, which may have affixed thereto decorative material, embroidery or the like. Affixed to each of the sides and ends of the rectangular cap panel is a generally trapezoidal-shaped member known as a puffing member. This puffing member is rigid enough to maintain a particular shape when formed into that shape, but not so stiff as to be difficult to form into the desired shape. Generally, each puffing member includes a resiliently flexible substrate of for example paperboard to which is attached decorative fabric. Standoffs may be employed within the casket cap upon which to support the peripheral edges of the cap panel and to locate the dish assembly depthwise within the cap. The free edges of the puffing members are disposed in and retained by a peripheral groove in the peripheral edge of the cap, that is a groove in the interior edge of the cap's side and end members, generally known as rim members. The puffing members are sized so that once the dish assembly is positioned in the casket lid atop standoffs or the like, the puffing members must be formed into a convex shape in order for the free edges of the puffing members to be retained in the cap peripheral groove. The resiliency of the puffing members, when so convexly formed, maintains the cap panel in contact with the standoffs and/or the standoffs in contact with the cap interior.
Heretofore the forming of the puffing members into a convex shape has generally been done by hand, that is to say without the aid of any guide means for forming the convex shape of the puffing members. Consequently, without any guide means beneath the puffing members to maintain them in their convex shape, unsightly gaps can appear at the corners of adjacent puffing members known as "mitre gaps". In addition, if pressure is inadvertently applied to one of the convex puffing members after installation, the puffing members can collapse or be crushed thereby requiring removal of the same and the installation of a new dish assembly.
One solution to the forming of the convex puffing members and retention of those puffing members in a convex state is disclosed in Hillenbrand et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,664,615, assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In that patent, a plurality of webs which are cut in profile to correspond to the desired curvature of the puffing members are attached to the puffing members by means of glue. While such webs maintain the convex shape of the puffing members, installation of the same can be somewhat tedious and time consuming. Furthermore, these webs do not serve to locate the dish assembly depthwise relative to the casket cap.
It has therefore been an objective of the present invention to provide a support for a cap dish assembly which locates the dish assembly depthwise relative to the cap, which provides a curvature guide in forming the convex shape of the puffing members, which provides support to and maintains the puffing members in their convex shape and which is quickly installable into a casket cap.